What's with the cracks on the band room?

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I found the new cracks on the high school band room very troubling - at first. On Sunday, a week after the 7.2 quake, cracks appeared from the foundation of the band room to the top of the roof, with identical cracks on the other side. This sudden appearance of cracks on a major building caused enough concern that we called the Division of State Architect's office and requested that a structural engineer visit the high school and inspect the building.

His first question had to do with the age of the building. Unfortunately, the building is so old that we could not locate any documents on it all. That is, until we began going through old year books to see if the building was in any of the photographs in the annuals. Luckily, we not only found pictures, but the yearbook had pictures of the construction of the building and the original wall plaque for the building.

It turns out the building was built as an agricultural building with funds from the “Federal Emergency Administrator of Public Works”, the largest "New Deal" agency that built thousands of buildings under President Roosevelt's plan. The building, it turns out, was built in 1938, making it the oldest occupied classroom in the district.

Now back to the cracks. Thankfully, the cracks have a good reason for being there. The band room is not one, but two buildings, built side-to-side, connected so closely together that it is impossible to tell there are two buildings there. The cracks occured because at some point in the last 72 years, the second building was built and the two rooms were "married" together using stucco. The cracks were a natural extension of a large building's foundation moving during an earthquake and the stucco attempting to stay in its place. According the structural engineer, the cracks are a good sign that the foundation is continuing to do its job. He also noted that the original ag building where the band and choir practice is one of the most solid buildings he's seen. Apparently, no expense was held back when it was built using federal funds.

So not only did we ensure the buildings were safe, we learned a great deal of history about the Lendal Macon Music and Arts Center.

Of course we also had the structural engineer look over the entire campus to ensure it is safe for our kids. It is.


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